Under the auspices of Egyptian Minister of Sport Al-Amari Farouk, South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda and the International Triathlon Union (ITU), Egypt hosted the first edition of the ITU Arab Open Championship. The championship was held in Sharm El-Sheikh from 18-24 March. Egypt snatched seven gold, seven silver and two bronze medals. It was the first ever such race held on Arab soil. It was a sprint distance draft legal ITU race of 750 metres swimming, 20 kilometres on bicycle and five kilometres run. Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, the United Arab of Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Sudan, Tunisia, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya and Egypt participated. In junior boys under 19 years old, Jordanian Rami Sheikh came first while Egyptians Abdel-Rahman Ahmed was second and Khaled Essam finished third. In the elite women's race, Egyptian Fatma Saed won a gold medal. Also, Egyptians Alla Ali took silver and Raheb Hamdi bronze for a clean sweep. In the elite men's race, Jordanian number one Lawrence Fanous came first in 1:06:00 while Egyptians Omar Nour took silver in 1:02:20 and Mohamed Khaled bronze in 1:03:33. In the men's U23, three Egyptian, Mohamed Khaled, Mohamed El-Said and Ahmed Safaa Al-Swaedi made it 1-2-3. In the girls U23, Egyptians Jubiner Tarek won gold and Raheb Hamdi silver while Lebanese Theresa Tailor finished third. In the girls U19 Naira Mohamed took first place but could not complete her competition stages of the race. In duathlon competitions, Egyptian athlete Mohamed Asharf won a gold medal in the boy's U19 event. Mohamed Ahmed took silver in the men's U23. Egyptian athletes Maha Yousri snatched gold in the girl's U19 and Nada Mohamed in the women's U23 event. Hadeel Magdi took silver in the women's event. On the sidelines of the championships, the ITU held a training course for 32 coaches from seven Arab countries. The coaches received the ITU's certificates of International Triathlon for the first level. Twenty-five Arab referees and coaches attended two sessions on referees and organisers of international tournaments of the first level. The Arab Triathlon Union (ATU) General Assembly with the attendance of 13 Arab countries and Secretary-General of the Union of the Arab National Olympic Committees Sheikh Saud bin Ali Abdul-Aziz also re-elected for the second consecutive time the founder of the Egyptian Triathlon Federation (ETF) Ahmed Nasser as the ATU president from 2013 to 2017. Nasser also serves as a member of the executive board of the African Triathlon Union (ATU). The triathlon involves three sports -- swimming, cycling and running in immediate succession over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall course completion time, including timed “transitions” between the individual swim, bike, and run components. The word ‘triathlon' is a Greek origin for ‘trei' meaning three and ‘athlos' which means contest. Triathlon races differ in distance. There are four main international races distances: The standard distance known as ‘Olympic distance' is 1.5 kilometres swim, 40 kilometres bike and 10 kilometres run. Long course is 1.2 miles swim, 56 miles ride and 13.1 miles run, such as the Half Ironman triathlon. Ultra distance is 2.4 miles swim, 112 miles ride, and a full marathon of 26.2 miles. Duathlon is much more specific with three separate race sections, but only two sports. Primarily, people first run a set distance, then bike a set distance and for the final event, run another set distance.
